Photos: Stan Lee’s comic book convention and new superheroes for China, India

Jamaal Hardy, left, and Gus Hardy pose with characters Ross Johnson, dressed as Wolverine, and Daniel Castro, dressed as Iron Man, at the Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con at the South Point Saturday, June 15, 2013.

With comic book fans dressed in the colorful costumes of their favorite artistic heroes, you would have thought the characters had stepped right from the pages.

Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, Thor, Daredevil and the Avengers were all out in force with dazzling wardrobe creations.

The legendary Stan Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics who created many of them, was beaming with enthusiasm for his comic book heroes come to life. The 91-year-old writer, editor, author and publisher is the godfather of the genre and still its biggest booster.

Contributing photographer Tom Donoghue was on hand for the three-day convention held at the South Point and captured a classic photo of Stan and Jim Lee, the award winning Korean-American comic artist.

Now Stan has launched his own Superheroes fragrances. “Not only do I want fans to look sharp like their favorite hero,” he said, “but I thought it would be fun to offer them the chance to smell like one, too.”

I’ve known Stan for many years. My long-time pal commented: "Audiences throughout the world love superheroes. Every type, every nationality, every culture has had superheroes in their legends. People love that sort of thing. The Greek gods and so forth. Superhero stories, they are like fairy tales for grown-ups. Every child loved reading fairy tales when he or she was a child. They were stories about monsters and witches and giants and magicians; well, superhero stories have that same flavor but they are done for adults as well as for children."